


This is How it Starts

by pretzel_logic



Series: You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Female!Barry, Gen, Rule 63, dfab!Barry, essentially a prologue for all my what if Barry was born a girl ideas, ftm!Barry, genderfluid!Barry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-21 11:43:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9547655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretzel_logic/pseuds/pretzel_logic
Summary: In the days that follow Eobard's failure to kill Barry Allen, the Reverse Flash makes an unexpected discovery.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this with the idea it would be a prologue for one story and started writing other stories with the same prologue in mind. Whoops. A wonderful friend suggested it just be the first part of a series including all the various stories I wrote with this prologue in mind.

Eobard read over the news article with passing interest. Between being there the night of Nora Allen's murder, what with being the culprit, and Gideon's access to the future he knew how the tragic story would unfold. He read the article not to learn more about his long time adversary but because he never quite got over his habit of being a historian on all things Flash. His lips quirked at the sudden burst of nostalgia for a time when the Flash had simply been a historical figure, someone once abstract because their life had come and gone long before his. That once innocent thirst for knowledge on all things Flash that eventually led to him meeting his idol.

More the fool he for ignoring the ancient warning about never meeting your heroes.

Regardless of his reasons, Eobard continued to read the article. It was so cut and dry. A tragedy but nothing special in the eyes of the reporter. Yet another wife murdered by her husband in a long unfortunate history of men murdering their wives. The author did not even bother to act impartial, making it clear he thought Henry Allen was guilty of the crime despite his claims of innocence.

It was so fascinating how this was the first event to pave the way for the Flash's future dealings with him. It explained how Flash knew his name upon their first meeting, from Eobard's perspective. It explained why Flash had been so antagonistic without any past history on Eobard's part. He knew in that first encounter that his plans to destroy the Flash might not yet have succeeded but they certainly had not been complete failures.

He might have murdered Nora Allen out of spite but it was nice to see how significant of an impact it had on Flash.

 _Leaving behind an eleven year old daughter_ …

Daughter? No, that could not be right. How had a mistake that glaring made it to publishing?

“Gideon,” Eobard ordered not even really hearing Gideon automatic ’Yes, Professor Thawne?’ before adding, “Find me Barry Allen's medical file of 2024.”

“Of course Professor,” Gideon compiled before the document appeared in place of the AI’s face.

Sure enough the medical records showed that Barry Allen was listed as ‘sex: female’. How had he missed this information before? The Flash wasn't a man but a woman? Well, 21st century laws regarding transgender and corrective medical procedures were rather ham-fisted in the early years. Perhaps Flash identified as male but never went through any of the legal hoops to change his records?

How had the Flash managed to have children with Iris West if both had two X chromosomes? The technology to make it possible simply did not yet exist. Generations of speedsters in the Allen family implied Flash must have born the children himself but then who was their genetic father? Eobard always knew he was a direct male descendant of the Thawne line but was it possible Flash was one of his matrilineal ancestors?

He was going to have to revise his research into the Allen and Thawne lines all over again to ensure he could kill the Flash without erasing his own existence. Well, at least he could task Gideon with the project as he worked on finding a way back to his proper time and recovering his speed.

Until then he’d keep a distant eye on Barry Allen. Her potential use, and danger, far outweighed any short term reward of finally killing the Flash.

**Author's Note:**

> comment mod on for shy reviewers that wish to leave a private review.
> 
> Follow on my Tumblr blogs: [pretzel-log1c](pretzel-log1c.tumblr.com) and [pretzel-writes](pretzel-writes.tumblr.com)


End file.
